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Journalism of Courage
Nearly three months after he triggered a storm back home in India with his famous 8220;headless chicken8221; remark in a media interview on the nuclear deal, the Lok Sabha committee on privileges unanimously absolved Indian Ambassador to the United States Ronen Sen of the charge of a breach of privilege and proposed to treat the matter as closed.
The 15-member committee which met here on Friday under the chairmanship of V Kishore Chandra Deo, finalised its report on the issue. Deo would submit the report to Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who would call upon him to place it before the House sometime next week.
The report, according to sources, said the matter be treated as closed in view of the unconditional apology of Ambassador Sen.
The House panel made certain observations alongside. The sources said the committee felt the issue does not involve any breach of privilege or contempt of the House.
As for the 8220;headless chicken8221; remark, the committee understood and accepted Sen8217;s explanation that it was not meant for Members of Parliament or politicians. It was believed to refer to only a section of the media.
Regarding the views expressed by Sen in the course of the August 20 interview, the committee agreed that while it is not a sin, not even for a diplomat, to have his personal opinions on important issues, it is lamentably naiuml;ve for a seasoned diplomat to have given vent to his personal opinion on such an important matter like the Indo-US nuclear deal to a mediaperson albeit in an unguarded moment.
The expression 8220;unguarded moment8221; was used by Sen while recounting before the committee how he happened to say what he did in the interview. Having said this, the committee registered its appreciation of the frank and candid manner in which Sen responded and presented his case before it.
Several members had told The Indian Express after his appearance before the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha panels that they were struck by his intellectual honesty.
Not once did Sen, they noted, disowned a single word attributed to him in the interview. He only maintained that he was speaking off-the-record and was caught in an unguarded moment on an issue on which he felt very strongly.
Sen had sailed through the Lok Sabha committee during his personal appearance on October 29.
On the other hand, the Rajya Sabha committee had given him a tough time by subjecting him to rather difficult questions.
This committee has some leading lights like Sitaram Yechury CPI-M and Arun Jaitley, Ravi Shankar Prasad and S S Ahluwalia of the saffron party. Though both committees are handling the issue with co-ordination, it remains to be seen if the Rajya Sabha panel gives its report on the same lines or takes a tougher view.
